Live Stats I Live Audio (Friday Only) I OVC Standings

RICHMOND, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky University baseball team will host Austin Peay this weekend at Turkey Hughes Field in a showdown between the first and second place teams in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Friday’s series opener is set to get underway at 3:00 p.m., while Saturday’s game will begin at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday’s finale will begin at 1:00 p.m.

EKU (16-17, 8-4 OVC) enters this weekend having won nine of its last 11 games and eight of its last 10 games. The surging Colonels took two-of-three from conference foe Eastern Illinois at home last weekend. Sophomore Steve Ferraro blasted a one-out, solo home run in the bottom of the 11th to win game one, propelling the Colonels to their third consecutive OVC series win.

EKU has not played a non-conference game since March 27. The Colonels’ two-game set at Appalachian State this week was completely washed out by rain.

EKU has raised its batting average 25 points to .276 during its winning streak, and the Colonels entered this week tied with Florida for the national lead with 47 home runs.

Senior Richie Rodriguez continues to pace EKU in almost every major offensive category, including batting average (.373) home runs (11), RBI (31), runs scored (32), slugging percentage (.708) and on-base percentage (.484). Rodriguez recorded a career-best eight straight hits during the three-game series at Austin Peay last year.

Senior #A.J. Jamison# (.320) and junior Austin Grisham (.321) also continue to hit the ball well, while middle-of-the-lineup hitters senior Jacob Daniel (.298, 31 RBI) and Bryan Soloman (.270, seven home runs, 12 doubles) are steadily creeping towards the .300 mark.

APSU (22-14, 9-2 OVC) has been in first place in the OVC since the conference season began. The defending league champions swept Southeast Missouri and UT Martin to begin conference play and have since split a series with EIU and taken two-of-three from Murray State.

Jordan Hankins leads a balanced APSU offense with a .316 batting average, while Greg Bachman has smacked eight home runs and driven in a team-best 36 runs.

EKU will run out senior right-hander Matt Harris (4-3, 4.92 ERA), who is 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in his career against APSU, on Friday and junior left-hander Shane Grimm (4-4, 3.38 ERA) on Saturday. In its search for a consistent Sunday starter, EKU will turn to sophomore right-hander Brent Cobb in this weekend’s game three. Cobb has been effective out of the bullpen this season, compiling a 2-0 record with a 2.95 ERA in 21.1 innings of work. Opposing batters are hitting just .173 against him. The Colonels have lost their last two Sunday games (both times they were in a position to sweep), and neither of their starters in those games got out of the fifth inning.

APSU will respond with a rotation that looks like this: right-hander Ryan Quick (3-1, 3.82 ERA) on Friday, left-hander Zach Toney (2-2, 4.20 ERA) on Saturday and right-hander Casey Delgado (4-3, 6.41 ERA) on Sunday.

EKU leads the all-time series between the two schools, 40-35. APSU took two-of three from EKU last year, but the Colonels swept the Govs in Richmond two years ago.